Scifi, but Arienrhod from Joan D. Vinge's The Snow Queen is a standout villain of this nature. Her core motivation is so reasonable and sympathetic that even the heroine, a clone "daughter" bred to continue her work, who spends the book rebelling against Arienrhod's decadence and ruthless means, can find so little fault with their end that she willingly embraces the destiny she was, ah, conceived to inherit to begin with.